With only 11 days left before the state budget is finalized in the Legislature, several hundred students rallied in Red Square and marched through campus yesterday in opposition to legislation that threatens to slash millions of dollars from the UW’s funding.

The rally addressed budget cuts and tuition hikes, but the main source of resentment among protestors was the possibility that a portion of students’ tuition money may be allocated into a general state fund.

“Every year, you pay a building fee,” GPSS President Jake Faleschini explained to the crowd. “The House budget proposes taking that fee and appropriating money for the general fund of the state of Washington. They are using you as a tax.”

The building fee Faleschini referred to is included in tuition costs.

University officials caught wind of this discrepancy in the state’s budget proposal about a week after it released at the beginning of the month.

After hearing about this “tuition tax” at a forum held by ASUW President Anttimo Bennett last Friday, junior Jason Padvorac and freshman Camilo Moreno-Salamanca decided to take action. The two created a Facebook event Saturday morning called Rally for the UW, hoping to give members of the UW community an opportunity to vocalize their frustration and displeasure, Padvorac said.

By Monday evening, the event had caught the interest of more than 10,000 students, administrators, faculty and staff. A few hundred were in attendance yesterday.

“I am filled with pride today,” said Moreno-Salamanca at the beginning of the rally. “Pride of a Husky nation that stands united … to send a clear message to legislators. That message is that higher education is not irrelevant nor unnecessary, and we will not stand for cost rises as classes get larger and the very people who educate us disappear.”

Democracy Insurgent member Veryl Pow emphasized the importance of acting now.

“Olympia, can you hear us?” Pow asked the crowd through a megaphone.

Democracy Insurgent, a social activism group on campus, is attempting to build a concrete movement in response to the decisions in Olympia, he said.

“There’s so little time left before they vote,” said sophomore Jamie Waldock. “Now is the time to spread the word and contact legislators.”

Waldock and her friend Sarah Round, who was also in attendance, plan to write letters to their legislators and are working to inspire others to follow suit.

Senior James Mellinger, however, found the rally ineffective.

“Students are basically about to have their tuition taxed, and what is our response? To sit in the sun listening to a group of people … yell into a blow horn,” Mellinger said. “What we need is to have massive numbers of students from every college in the state talking face-to-face with our elected officials in Olympia before the end of the legislative session.”

Despite varying perspectives about the rally, all speakers emphasized the value of higher education.

“You are an investment; you are not a cost,” said Ana Mari Cauce, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “We’ve got to go to Olympia and say, ‘We can take some cuts, but you need to invest in us because we are the future.’”

Reach reporter Rachel Solomon at news@dailyuw.com.